Characteristic x-ray line energies of the elements

XRFx-ray transition energy

Sep 13, 2014

Introduction

Having a list of all x-ray transitions of the elements is quite useful, in particular when analysing x-ray fluorescence spectra.

This work was based on data from the PANalytical Epsilon 5 software, version 2.0J/ICSW 2.8 of Dec 7, 2010 with kernel PW5050. In this software, data on every transition’s energy and relative intensity was stored in a user-accessible format, as well as the edge energies for each element.

Notation: IUPAC more stringent than Siegbahn

At this stage in the work, it gradually became untenable to keep using the Siegbahn notation for x-ray transitions, since it is both incomplete (not all transitions have labels) and slightly arbitrary (different authors use the same label for different transitions). So I decided to switch to the IUPAC notation, which offers a complete, coherent system. This required me to translate all the existing Siegbahn labels in my dataset into IUPAC ones. To do that, I needed a “translator”. Luckily I found a good start in table 10.11 of (Lengyel, Ure, & Inczédy, 1998), and from there it was not too hard to work out the corresponding IUPAC names of the remaining transitions in my dataset.

IUPAC notation and corresponding Siegbahn notation

IUPAC

Siegbahn

IUPAC

Siegbahn

IUPAC

Siegbahn

\(\mathrm{K}\mathrm{L}_1\)

\(\mathrm{K}\alpha_3\)

\(\mathrm{L}_1\mathrm{M}_2\)

\(\mathrm{L}\beta_4\)

\(\mathrm{M}_1\mathrm{N}_3\)

\(\mathrm{K}\mathrm{L}_2\)

\(\mathrm{K}\alpha_2\)

\(\mathrm{L}_1\mathrm{M}_{2,3}\)

\(\mathrm{K}\beta_{3,4}\)

\(\mathrm{M}_2\mathrm{N}_4\)

\(\mathrm{K}\mathrm{L}_{2,3}\)

\(\mathrm{K}\alpha_{1,2}\)

\(\mathrm{L}_1\mathrm{M}_3\)

\(\mathrm{L}\beta_3\)

\(\mathrm{M}_3\mathrm{N}_1\)

\(\mathrm{K}\mathrm{L}_3\)

\(\mathrm{K}\alpha_1\)

\(\mathrm{L}_1\mathrm{M}_4\)

\(\mathrm{L}\beta_{10}\)

\(\mathrm{M}_3\mathrm{N}_4\)

\(\mathrm{M}\gamma_2\)

\(\mathrm{K}\mathrm{M}_2\)

\(\mathrm{K}\beta_3\)

\(\mathrm{L}_1\mathrm{M}_5\)

\(\mathrm{L}\beta_9\)

\(\mathrm{M}_3\mathrm{N}_5\)

\(\mathrm{M}\gamma_1\)

\(\mathrm{K}\mathrm{M}_{2,3}\)

\(\mathrm{K}\beta_{1,3}\)

\(\mathrm{L}_1\mathrm{N}_2\)

\(\mathrm{L}\gamma_2\)

\(\mathrm{M}_3\mathrm{O}_1\)

\(\mathrm{K}\mathrm{M}_3\)

\(\mathrm{K}\beta_1\)

\(\mathrm{L}_1\mathrm{N}_3\)

\(\mathrm{L}\gamma_3\)

\(\mathrm{M}_3\mathrm{O}_4\)

\(\mathrm{K}\mathrm{M}_{4,5}\)

\(\mathrm{K}\beta_5\)

\(\mathrm{L}_1\mathrm{N}_4\)

\(\mathrm{M}_3\mathrm{O}_5\)

\(\mathrm{K}\mathrm{N}_{2,3}\)

\(\mathrm{K}\beta_2\)

\(\mathrm{L}_1\mathrm{N}_5\)

\(\mathrm{L}\gamma_{11}\)

\(\mathrm{M}_{4,5}\mathrm{N}_{2,3}\)

\(\mathrm{M}\zeta_{1,2}\)

\(\mathrm{K}\mathrm{N}_{4,5}\)

\(\mathrm{K}\beta_4\)

\(\mathrm{L}_1\mathrm{O}_2\)

\(\mathrm{L}\gamma^\prime_4\)

\(\mathrm{M}_4\mathrm{N}_{2,3}\)

\(\mathrm{M}\zeta_1\)

\(\mathrm{K}\mathrm{O}_{2}\)

\(\mathrm{K}\delta_2\)

\(\mathrm{L}_1\mathrm{O}_3\)

\(\mathrm{L}\gamma_4\)

\(\mathrm{M}_4\mathrm{N}_3\)

\(\mathrm{K}\mathrm{O}_{3}\)

\(\mathrm{K}\delta_1\)

\(\mathrm{L}_2\mathrm{M}_1\)

\(\mathrm{L}\eta\)

\(\mathrm{M}_4\mathrm{N}_6\)

\(\mathrm{M}\beta_1\)

\(\mathrm{L}_2\mathrm{M}_3\)

\(\mathrm{L}\beta_{17}\)

\(\mathrm{M}_5\mathrm{N}_3\)

\(\mathrm{M}\zeta_2\)

\(\mathrm{L}_2\mathrm{M}_4\)

\(\mathrm{L}\beta_1\)

\(\mathrm{M}_5\mathrm{N}_6\)

\(\mathrm{M}\alpha_2\)

\(\mathrm{L}_2\mathrm{N}_1\)

\(\mathrm{L}\gamma_5\)

\(\mathrm{M}_5\mathrm{N}_{6,7}\)

\(\mathrm{M}\alpha_{1,2}\)

\(\mathrm{L}_2\mathrm{N}_4\)

\(\mathrm{L}\gamma_1\)

\(\mathrm{M}_5\mathrm{N}_7\)

\(\mathrm{M}\alpha_1\)

\(\mathrm{L}_2\mathrm{N}_{6,7}\)

\(\mathrm{L}\nu\)

\(\mathrm{L}_2\mathrm{O}_1\)

\(\mathrm{L}\gamma_8\)

\(\mathrm{L}_2\mathrm{O}_4\)

\(\mathrm{L}\gamma_6\)

\(\mathrm{L}_3\mathrm{M}_1\)

\(\mathrm{L}\ell\)

\(\mathrm{L}_3\mathrm{M}_2\)

\(\mathrm{L}t\)

\(\mathrm{L}_3\mathrm{M}_3\)

\(\mathrm{L}s\)

\(\mathrm{L}_3\mathrm{M}_4\)

\(\mathrm{L}\alpha_2\)

\(\mathrm{L}_3\mathrm{M}_{4,5}\)

\(\mathrm{L}\alpha_{1,2}\)

\(\mathrm{L}_3\mathrm{M}_5\)

\(\mathrm{L}\alpha_1\)

\(\mathrm{L}_3\mathrm{N}_1\)

\(\mathrm{L}\beta_6\)

\(\mathrm{L}_3\mathrm{N}_4\)

\(\mathrm{L}\beta_{15}\)

\(\mathrm{L}_3\mathrm{N}_5\)

\(\mathrm{L}\beta_2\)

\(\mathrm{L}_3\mathrm{N}_{6,7}\)

\(\mathrm{L}\beta^\prime_{6,7}\)

\(\mathrm{L}_3\mathrm{N}_{6,7}\)

\(\mathrm{L}u\)

\(\mathrm{L}_3\mathrm{O}_1\)

\(\mathrm{L}\beta_7\)

\(\mathrm{L}_3\mathrm{O}_{4,5}\)

\(\mathrm{L}\beta_5\)

Line energies

Transition energy vs Z.Distribution of the transition series.Natural width of the \(\mathrm{K}\alpha_1\) and \(\mathrm{K}\alpha_2\) lines.Fluorescence yields of the \(\mathrm{K}\), \(\mathrm{L}_1\), \(\mathrm{L}_2\), and \(\mathrm{L}_3\) lines.\(\mathrm{K}\beta\) and \(\mathrm{K}\alpha\) relative intensities (in percent). This looks extra messy because most elements have more than one \(\mathrm{K}\beta\) or (in particular) more than one \(\mathrm{K}\alpha\) transition.Variations of \(\mathrm{K}\beta/\mathrm{K}\alpha\) with atomic number.

The energy of the strongest \(\mathrm{K}\), \(\mathrm{L}\), and \(\mathrm{M}\) lines

The energy of the strongest \(\mathrm{K}\), \(\mathrm{L}\), and \(\mathrm{M}\) lines of the elements.

Element

Z

K/keV

L/keV

M/keV

Be

4

0.109

B

5

0.183

C

6

0.277

N

7

0.393

O

8

0.525

F

9

0.677

Ne

10

0.848

Na

11

1.040

Mg

12

1.254

Al

13

1.487

Si

14

1.740

P

15

2.011

S

16

2.310

Cl

17

2.622

Ar

18

2.958

K

19

3.314

Ca

20

3.692

Sc

21

4.093

0.395

Ti

22

4.512

0.452

V

23

4.953

0.51

Cr

24

5.415

0.572

Mn

25

5.900

0.637

Fe

26

6.405

0.705

Co

27

6.931

0.775

Ni

28

7.480

0.849

Cu

29

8.046

0.928

Zn

30

8.637

1.012

Ga

31

9.251

1.098

Ge

32

9.886

1.188

As

33

10.543

1.282

Se

34

11.224

1.379

Br

35

11.924

1.481

Kr

36

12.648

1.585

Rb

37

13.396

1.692

Sr

38

14.165

1.806

Y

39

14.958

1.924

Zr

40

15.775

2.044

Nb

41

16.615

2.169

Mo

42

17.480

2.292

Tc

43

18.367

2.423

Ru

44

19.279

2.558

Rh

45

20.216

2.697

Pd

46

21.177

2.838

Ag

47

22.163

2.983

Cd

48

23.173

3.133

In

49

24.210

3.286

Sn

50

25.271

3.444

Sb

51

26.359

3.604

Te

52

27.473

3.678

I

53

28.612

3.938

Xe

54

29.775

4.11

Cs

55

30.973

4.285

Ba

56

32.194

4.467

La

57

33.442

4.647

0.833

Ce

58

34.720

4.839

0.882

Pr

59

36.027

5.035

0.929

Nd

60

37.361

5.228

0.978

Pm

61

38.725

4.532

1.023

Sm

62

40.118

5.633

1.085

Eu

63

41.542

5.85

1.132

Gd

64

42.996

6.053

1.19

Tb

65

44.482

6.273

1.248

Dy

66

45.999

6.498

1.299

Ho

67

47.547

6.72

1.353

Er

68

49.128

6.949

1.409

Tm

69

50.742

7.18

1.466

Yb

70

52.388

7.416

1.523

Lu

71

54.070

7.655

1.581

Hf

72

55.790

7.899

1.645

Ta

73

57.535

8.146

1.71

W

74

59.318

8.398

1.776

Re

75

61.141

8.652

1.843

Os

76

63.000

8.911

1.91

Ir

77

64.896

9.175

1.98

Pt

78

66.831

9.442

2.073

Au

79

68.806

9.713

2.123

Hg

80

70.818

9.989

2.195

Tl

81

72.872

10.269

2.271

Pb

82

74.970

10.551

2.346

Bi

83

77.107

10.839

2.423

Po

84

79.291

11.131

2.502

At

85

81.516

11.427

2.582

Rn

86

83.785

11.727

2.654

Fr

87

86.106

12.031

2.732

Ra

88

88.478

12.339

2.806

Ac

89

90.884

12.652

2.9

Th

90

93.351

12.968

2.996

Pa

91

95.868

13.291

3.083

U

92

98.440

13.614

3.171

Np

93

101.059

13.946

3.25

Pu

94

103.734

14.282

3.339

Am

95

105.970

14.616

3.429

Cm

96

108.759

14.954

3.525

Bk

97

111.698

15.307

3.616

Cf

98

114.801

15.655

3.709

Es

99

119.080

16.036

Fm

100

122.190

16.402

Md

101

125.390

16.768

No

102

128.660

17.139

Lr

103

132.020

17.5

The strongest \(\mathrm{K}\), \(\mathrm{L}\), and \(\mathrm{M}\) lines of the elements sorted by increasing transition energy.